Practically Classics Forum

hi guys,

I've not posted anything in a while, but thought you might be interested in some analysis I've done with DfT stats. It shows which counties have more than average or less than average numbers of classics (taking into account their population), and shows how many of a few selected models there are in each county.

I've also done some heatmaps showing where expensive (ie E-types and Astons) and more 'affordable' classics are.

The website is www.suitableclassics.co.uk. Think it's OK to post it here as it's hardly in competition with PC.

Let me know what you think,

Mike

Are those statistics classics owned per capita, or simply by geographical area? If the latter, then they're pretty meaningless for me.

Yep, the stats on how each county compares to average is per capita, otherwise it'd be meaningless.

There are 3 groups of classics I've looked at - the first is trying to get a reasonable cross section of classics, the second is the more expensive end of the market, and the last is the more affordable end.

I'm a statistician in my day job, so I've made it as robust as possible. There are a few challenges -there aren't that many models that can be reliably identified in the stats (eg fiat 500s are all lumped together, the proper classic versions and the newer ones); and where a county has fewer than 5 but more than none of a particular model the DfT can only tell me it's fewer than 5 otherwise it'd potentially be a breach of data protection so I've assumed there are 2 (this means results for smaller counties like the Isles of Scilly get a bit strange). There's a page that tells you how I've calculated the stats, and if you want to know more I can give you the details.

The tool that lets you look up results for an individual county shows how it stacks up against average on each of these 3 groups, but also gives you actual raw numbers for certain models.

Hope that reassures you!

Mike

The wording of that Mercedes W123 buying guide has a very familiar ring to it.

Where does it seem familiar from, if you don't mind me asking?

mike

No, I certainly don't mind your asking, it's quite expected. I've yet to work out where I've read the piece. I'd never taken a look at your site until this evening when I opened the link above but I recognised the wording as soon as I started to read the W123 information. Have you also had that published in one of the classic car periodicals? Could I have seen it plagiarised by an eBay seller who had used it to add interest to a listing for one of these cars? It'll come to me, probably at 4 in the morning when I'd rather it hadn't!

I've always had this annoying habit of remembering every word of a piece of written information that interests me. Annoying as I'm equally capable of forgetting which student I'm supposed to be taking to which appointment on which day, in which workshop I'm meant to be delivering tuition or indeed what day of the week it is.

Strange buyers guide on the Merc chaps, it appears to say it has been hacked followed by a load of strange Pakistani activist / political type male cow poo when I click the link....is it just me?

Tried it a couple of times so you may want to take a look Mr Tibbs.

Thanks for letting me know arceye. have more or less taken the site down for the time being and will try to sort it out this evening.

Mike

According to Loveoldclassics (whatever happened to him?) most classics are concentrated in Battle.

He generally reappears shortly after someone asks where he's gone. I do hope that he hasn't been run over by a corporation omnibus.